Lightning Breath
Lightning Breath is one of the many Unit Abilities found in Master of Magic. With this ability, a unit making a voluntary Melee Attack starts this attack with a blast of Lightning that is particularly good at bypassing enemies' . This is one of only two types of Breath Attacks available in the game (the other one being Fire Breath). In the unmodified game, this ability is exclusive to a single creature: the . It is not possessed by any other unit, nor can it be added to them by any means. As such, this article focuses almost entirely on the ability of this creature. In a modded game, Lightning Breath will likely behave exactly like Fire Breath with 3 exceptions: its is not subject to Fire Immunity, but is instead Armor Piercing; and the Attack Strength might be enhanced by different Node Auras (based on the type of the unit that has this ability). The strength of the Lightning Breath ability possessed by the is 20, as is indicated after its name in the unit statistics window (where it is denoted simply as "Lightning", i.e. Lightning 20). This shows the maximum amount of that it can cause, though the attack itself is subjected to rolls and the target's rolls as is usual for most types of Physical Damage. Description The Sky Drake possesses a unique ability that allows it to literally breathe out lightning bolts. These are concentrated towards a specific target, and can cause significant amounts of damage. Due to the nature of lightning, armor can do very little to stop it. Units attacked by Lightning Breath can, at best, try to dodge out of the way. A direct hit by this concentration of electricity is deadly to the vast majority of units. Effect Lightning Breath is automatically used whenever the unit voluntarily makes a Melee Attack against any opponent. It is not available during Counter Attacks, but it does allow the to engage opponents even if it is grounded by a spell. As a Breath Attack, Lightning Breath is executed before any other attacks or exchange of damage between the and its target: it precedes any Gaze- or Touch Attacks that the opponent might have, and occurs well before the delivery of Melee Damage by either combatant. In fact, any opposing that is killed by the Lightning Breath will never be able to deliver any of those attacks or damage. This gives the significant protection from enemy units so long as it can maintain the initiative and not let the opponents attack it first. Lightning Breath is carried out in a similar fashion to a regular attack. An Attack Roll is made using the strength of the ability (usually 20 or 22) to determine the raw that can then be mitigated by the target's . However, Lightning Breath also deals Armor Piercing Damage, which means that the opponent's score (apart from any immunities, more on this below) gets halved for the purpose of making its (s). Immunities Lightning Breath is considered to be Magical Damage, in addition to actually being associated with the realm. This has some negative consequences in terms of it being defended against. Magic Immunity and both increase a target's Defense to against this Breath Attack, and both of these effects also override the Armor Piercing Damage component, making units possessing either of these very resilient against Lightning Breath. City Walls, if in play, also ignore the -halving effect. On the other hand, all other conditional modifiers do get cut in half, which is a good thing as most of them do apply against this attack. That includes the Large Shield ability (halved to ), and all 3 protective Unit Enchantments that increase their target's based on the nature of the incoming attack: ( ), ( ), and ( ). Since the first two of these spells grant an odd bonus, it's halved value depends on their target's original Defense. Units with Default Lightning Breath There is exactly one unit in the game that possesses Lightning Breath: - Lightning Breath 20 With a Lightning Breath strength of 20, the delivers an extremely powerful attack that can kill enemy units before they get any chance to retaliate. Given the Armor Piercing Damage caused by the attack, even heavily-armored units are at risk from it. Acquiring Lightning Breath There is no known method of adding a Lightning Breath ability to any unit that does not already possess it. Improving or Hindering Lightning Breath There are only two effects in the game that have a direct positive effect on Lightning Breath: the Sorcery Node Aura, and the ( ) spell. Similarly, there are also only two effects that can directly reduce its effectiveness: , and . The main reasons for this scarcity are the facts that the is a Fantastic Creature, excluding it from many positive effects; and it is also innately immune to both illusions and magic, making it impervious to all single-target negative modifiers. Attack Strength In terms of Attack Strength, entering into any battle that takes place in the area of influence of a Sorcery Node improves the strength of Lightning Breath by for all present, regardless of whether they are friendly or hostile. , on the other hand, only penalizes units hostile to its caster, reducing each of their Attack Strengths by 1, including a to Lightning Breath. Chance To Hit As for modifiers , casting or will benefit any on the caster's side, granting an extra chance for each point of Lightning Breath Attack Strength to score a successful hit. This bonus can only be applied once, casting both spells simultaneously will simply make one of them redundant. Finally, is another battlefield-wide effect that penalizes friend and foe alike. That is, unless they are associated with the realm, which the is not. This effect reduces the chance of all affected units by , and applies to all of their attacks, even if the attack itself is actually associated with (as is the case with Lightning Breath). This makes each point of Attack Strength 20% less likely to be able to cause any . Other Effects There are also a few other spells that have some influence over the Breath Attack granted by this ability. will cause Lightning Breath to be executed twice in a row during the Melee Attack sequence, while will also add its strength Area Damage attack on top of it, unless the game is played using the Unofficial Patch 1.50. In addition, , particularly when enchanted onto units, may seem stronger than normal against Lightning Breath, as its reduction of 2 completely ignores Armor Piercing Damage. This is also true for , although the effect of this spell is not overly noticeable to begin with. Category:Abilities